


A gift of gold

by Julie_Anne



Category: Maurice (1987), Maurice - E. M. Forster
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 19:05:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17772515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Julie_Anne/pseuds/Julie_Anne
Summary: Day 4Prompts - gift/goldenAlec gives Maurice a whole golden wood.(This would kind of fit in «Short and Sweet/Short and Sour», between "Roses in a water glass" and «Precarious oerfection"





	A gift of gold

The farmer had seemed to like them. He had mentioned the pay he was willing to give, and it wasn’t much, but Alec had been warned about that. It was enough.

\- You can have one of the cottages. Here – he’d handled Alec a big old key – take the first one. It’s a bit out-of-the-way, and has only one double bed, but since you’re brothers…

\- We don’t mind. – Alec’s smile had broadened – Morrie here snores like a steam engine, but I’m a heavy sleeper and I don’t even notice it anymore. All in all, it’s probably a good thing that it is kind of secluded.

Maurice was going to tackle Alec on that infamous slander, but Alec had winked at him and he had just laughed. As they walked down the dusty lane, he had felt it the right time and place to defend his honour.

\- I do not snore…!

Alec had looked at him with a loving smile.

\- Well, you actually do a bit, when you’re about to wake up… But I‘ve known it since the first time we slept together and it’s part of you. I kind of like it…

They had both loved the little cottage from the first day.  In the evening, they cooked something simple and ate supper by an open window where they could hear the crickets chirping. The joyful cries of swallows at dawn woke them. In little more than a week, Alec’s body had recovered its intimate knowledge of Nature’s rhythm, the knack of looking up and telling the time, of smelling the night air and predict rain.

\- Tomorrow’s going to rain… - he had warned the night before – No need for us to get up early.

\- How can you tell? – it had been a perfect sunny day, warm and dry.

\- I don’t know, it’s just something I feel.

And he was right. They woke rather late, with the plopping noise of the raindrops on the roof and had an unexpected but welcome free day to laze about. It turned comparatively cool by the end of the afternoon and they slept under an extra cover, spooning together for comfort (though not only for comfort).

Just before dawn, Alec opened his eyes.  It was no longer raining, and everything was perfectly still. An almost absolute silence covered the wood, a thin blanket of silence and an eerie greyish light. By his side, Maurice was snoring very softly. Alec got out of bed, put a warm jumper over his pyjamas, and his boots. He opened the door and stood on the threshold, drawing in a couple of deep breaths.

Leaving the door ajar, he went back in.

\- Morrie… - he whispered – Morrie, wake up, I want to show you something.

Maurice looked at him, half dazed with sleep, and smiled.

\- Good morning… What is it?

Alec was pulling him out of bed.

\- Here, put your boots on. Oh, do hurry or we’ll lose it! Come on!

Maurice sat up, clumsily put his boots on and let Alec wrap the extra blanket around him.

\- It’s kind of cool outside… - he said, as if excusing himself for acting in such a strange way  - Come on…

They stood outside the door.

\- Look…

At the end of the narrow dirt lane, the sun was rising. Only a golden haze was visible at first. Slowly but steadily, it grew brighter, coloured everything gold and, for a few moments, every leaf, every blade of grass, every stone, every speck of dust and every tree was made of pure gold. Then a lark sang its first notes, a thin slice of sun appeared over the horizon and they could no longer look. They went in and closed the door.

\- What do you say? I have been waiting for a dawn like this since we arrived.

\- It’s beautiful! I had never seen the sun come up…! Not like this! You are full of surprises!

Alec slipped under the blanket he had wrapped around Maurice’s shoulders. Maurice laughed.

\- You’re cold! – and hugged him tightly.

\- I wanted to show you the sunrise on the boathouse, but we missed it in the end… We could have watched it in town, but it’s not the same thing, so I was waiting. It had to be perfect! I may never be rich enough to give you gold, but you can have this every sunny morning.


End file.
